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Tourism operators express concern
Our association is alarmed at the lack of progress in establishing appropriate and effective safety regulations for water activities in the tourism industry. For the past six years, we have met and written to the authorities pointing out the growing importance of land and water based activities in Mauritian tourism and the need for safety standards and professionalism. Despite this, we still have glaring deficiencies in all aspects of lagoon resource management, including the areas of licensing, activity assessment, carrying capacity, zoning and safety. The recent Tourism (amendment) Act is a source of conflict and urgently needs review.
We have repeatedly pointed out (to no avail) that inadequate and inappropriate regulations and erratic enforcement pose a direct threat to the lives of persons involved in water activities. Every accident brings serious consequences for our tourism industry. The rising toll in boating accidents now obliges us to ask you to urgently form a safety committee comprising representative long-term, experienced professionals from the water activities sectors, relevant authorities AND, at least one independent qualified expert.
The role of this committee should be to carry out a risk assessment of every water activity in Mauritius; examine solutions adopted elsewhere to identify risks; develop a risk management policy for the local context.
Through this policy, appropriate regulations and guidelines necessary for our water activities management can be found in overseas regulations, so there is no justification for this to be a long drawn-out exercise. We would therefore ask that you ensure that appropriate regulations are put in place before the end of this year. It is not acceptable that another life should be lost, nor a person injured in any accident that is avoidable.
In view of the key role the ministry of Tourism plays in these matters, we would ask that, among its staff and that of the Tourism Authority, there should be at least one person with a skipper’s licence having knowledge and experience of boating. Our members are always available for any input we can provide on the tourism activities sector.
<B>Patrick FOK</B> <I>President of the Tourism Activity Professionals’ Association </I>
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